Yan Qing felt that the scene before her was somewhat familiar, because Shi Yutong had once used this very same trick against her.

Back when she had not yet married Shi Ting, she had once gone to the Shi Mansion to attend a birthday banquet. Shi Yutong and Yan Qin had conspired together to lure her into a side room in the rear courtyard, where they had arranged for a dissolute young man to be waiting.

At the time she still had her disability, unable to walk, yet she had been sharp enough not to fall for the trap, and Shi Ting had seen through everything and led her away from the room.

She had asked him afterward whether that was the moment he had first developed feelings for her. A certain someone had been stubbornly unwilling to admit it.

Recalling this, Yan Qing could not help but smile softly, her gaze shimmering with boundless tenderness.

Inside the room that the Commander had pushed open, besides Qian Lan, there was also a man.

This man was startled by the sudden intrusion, and the woman at his side immediately rose to her feet.

Yan Qing found these two people vaguely familiar, yet could not put names to their faces.

They were seated directly across from Qian Lan. The woman’s eyes were rimmed red, as though she had just been crying.

“Why, is that not Madam Sun and her son Sun Changyou?”

The lady standing beside Yan Qing was a font of gossip, and she immediately recognized the people in the room as the wife and eldest son of Sun Qiang, the director of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

Upon hearing the name Sun Changyou, Yan Qing suddenly understood.

This Sun Changyou had fallen for Shi Yutong at first sight and had been pursuing her relentlessly. The Commander and Du Linghua had also been amenable to marrying Shi Yutong into the Sun family in order to consolidate their relationship with Sun Qiang.

However, Shi Yutong had eventually learned of this arrangement and had a fierce quarrel with Du Linghua over it. Afterward, Shi Yutong had drunk the medicine that Yan Qin had so kindly sent her, which resulted in her uterus being surgically removed, rendering her permanently unable to bear children. The Shi family had kept this a secret, however, and aside from the few people directly involved, even Shi Yutong herself did not know.

Now that Sun Changyou and Madam Sun had suddenly appeared here, Yan Qing could not help but connect the two matters.

Yan Qing glanced toward Shi Yutong in the crowd and saw that she too wore an expression of utter disbelief, as though she had seen a ghost.

Yan Qing could not help but smile. It appeared that Shi Yutong’s scheme had come to nothing. Qian Lan could be tricked once, but she would not fall for it a second time.

The Commander was also taken aback when he saw who was inside the room.

“Commander, why have you come?” Qian Lan hurried forward with a smile. “Have things quieted down out front?”

The Commander looked at her flushed and radiant complexion and asked with concern, “I heard you were unwell.”

“Who said such a thing? There is nothing wrong with me at all.” Qian Lan’s smile was as fragrant as an orchid blossom, and the Commander looked as though he had been intoxicated by it.

“You see, I am perfectly fine.” Qian Lan looked toward Madam Sun. “I only wanted to have a private word with Madam Sun.”

She glanced toward the door as she spoke. “My, why have so many people come?”

Everyone who saw the composed and unruffled Qian Lan was taken aback as well. They had heard that Madam Shi was ill, yet judging by the present circumstances, Qian Lan was clearly not ill at all.

But if Qian Lan was not ill, then who had spread the word, and why had they been led here?

“As long as you are well.” The Commander finally set down the worry he had been carrying.

“Commander, I have been perfectly fine all along, so why did word suddenly spread that I was ill?” Qian Lan’s eyes shone brightly. “Could there be some misunderstanding?”

Hearing this, the Commander also sensed that something was off. He looked out at the crowd gathered outside, supposedly to visit the sick, but obviously there to watch the spectacle.

He turned to look for the little maidservant who had led him here, but she had already vanished without a trace.

“Lan’er, were you and Madam Sun discussing something?” the Commander asked with concern.

Before Qian Lan could speak, Madam Sun suddenly became agitated, though with the Commander present, she was still struggling to restrain herself.

“Commander, since you are here now, perhaps we ought to lay everything out in the open.” Madam Sun’s eyes were red, and her hands trembled uncontrollably.

Seeing this, Qian Lan quickly stepped forward and took hold of her hands. “Madam Sun, please do not get agitated just yet. Were you not agreeable just now? The Commander and I will certainly give you a satisfactory explanation in this matter.”

“Madam Shi, I do trust you,” Madam Sun said. “But I also want a personal guarantee from the Commander.”

Qian Lan grew anxious. “Madam Sun, whatever it is, let us discuss it behind closed doors. With so many people outside, if word gets out, not only will it become a laughingstock, it will also reflect poorly on — on Yutong.”

Shi Yutong still had not worked out why everything she had so carefully arranged had gone so completely contrary to her plans.

She had already sent someone to inform Jiang Zeluo, inviting him to meet here on the pretext that someone wished to discuss musical compositions with him. Given Jiang Zeluo’s passionate devotion to music, he would certainly not refuse.

At the same time, she had also lured Qian Lan to this place. Qian Lan was carrying in her hands the sheet music composed by Jiang Zeluo. The contents of that sheet music had been swapped out while it was in her possession. On the surface it still appeared to be a celebratory composition for the birthday banquet, but lifting the top layer would reveal the piece beneath — a confession ballad lamenting longing and yearning.

All she needed was to let the Commander see Qian Lan alone with Jiang Zeluo, and then have the love song found on Qian Lan’s person. Even if Qian Lan had a hundred mouths, she would not be able to explain herself. The only thing Qian Lan relied upon in the Shi Mansion was the Commander’s favor. If she were to plant a towering set of green horns on the Commander’s head, and have it exposed in front of all these guests, the Commander might not shoot her on the spot, but he would certainly drive her out of the Shi Mansion.

Yet despite all of Shi Yutong’s meticulous calculations, she could not figure out where she had gone wrong.

The person who should have been with Qian Lan was Jiang Zeluo. How had he been replaced by Sun Changyou?

What Shi Yutong could not have known was that Qian Lan had been born into a family of perfumers and had been exceptionally sensitive to scents since childhood. The letter paper had been contaminated with her own perfume, and that was what had exposed the scheme.

Just as Shi Yutong was at a complete loss, Madam Sun’s voice rang out clearly: “Madam Shi, I know you mean well, which is why I agreed to discuss this behind closed doors. But if this matter is not settled with the Commander present, I will not be able to sleep or eat in peace.”

The Commander looked at Qian Lan in bewilderment. “Lan’er, what is all this about? You had something to say to Madam Sun, and you chose a place with no one around?”

“Commander.” Just as Qian Lan was torn and did not know how to begin, Madam Sun lost all control of her emotions and burst into tears. “Commander, although our Sun family has two sons, you know our family’s circumstances well. My second son was born simple-minded and cannot take on great responsibilities. Our entire family’s hopes rest on Sun Changyou. We will depend on him to carry on the family name. And so we have thought long and hard about the choice of a daughter-in-law. After much deliberation, we settled on your daughter Shi Yutong. We had every reason to be optimistic about this match — who could have imagined that…”

Madam Sun looked toward Shi Yutong, who was standing nearby. “Who could have imagined that something like this would happen to a daughter of the Shi family?”

Every eye in the room immediately turned to Shi Yutong. Under the weight of all those gazes, she felt her skin crawl, yet she did not know why.

She had known about the Commander and Du Linghua’s negotiations with the Sun family regarding the marriage. Although she had done everything she could to sabotage it, with the Commander bearing down on her from above, she had not been able to deploy a single one of her many schemes.

When the matter had subsequently been set aside, she had assumed she would not need to discuss marriage with the Sun family after all, that she would not have to marry Sun Changyou — for whether in looks or talent, he was far inferior to Jiang Zeluo.

Now that Madam Sun had suddenly raised the subject of marriage again, Shi Yutong was thoroughly bewildered.

“What has happened to the daughter of the Shi family?”

“Yes, she looks perfectly fine to me.”

The ladies and young women around Shi Yutong began to whisper and murmur, casting all manner of strange glances her way.

Madam Sun said, “You may not have heard yet, but the Eighth Miss of the Shi family previously suffered a serious injury and underwent major surgery. Although she has since recovered well, she will never again be able to bear children.”

Madam Sun’s words were like a great boulder hurled into a tranquil lake, sending waves several feet high crashing outward.

Those waves, cold as ice, crashed over Shi Yutong, and she could not suppress a shudder.

“Our Sun family is counting on Changyou to continue the family line. If he were truly to marry the Eighth Miss, our Sun family would have no descendants at all.” Madam Sun wept. “When I heard about this matter, I wanted to speak with the Commander. Madam Shi did not want things to escalate, so she arranged to meet me here to discuss it privately. Since everyone has gathered now, I have no fear of laying it all out in the open. I would like to ask the Commander directly whether he still intends to marry the Eighth Miss to our Changyou as his principal wife.”

The Commander was clearly stunned as well.

Ever since Shi Yutong’s incident, he had kept the news concealed, to the point that even Shi Yutong herself did not know. As for the Sun family, he had simply never found the time to sit down and discuss the matter properly with them. He had not anticipated that Madam Sun would somehow learn of it and come to call him to account.

Qian Lan had already been speaking with Madam Sun and Sun Changyou behind closed doors when a crowd had suddenly descended as if to watch a spectacle, exposing what should have remained a secret to the full light of day.

“Who is it you are saying cannot bear children?” Shi Yutong was thunderstruck. What little reason she had left drove her to push through to Madam Sun, and she nearly jabbed her finger into Madam Sun’s nose. “Say that again. Who is it you are saying cannot bear children? If you go on talking such nonsense, do not think I will not tear your mouth apart.”

Madam Sun was frightened by Shi Yutong’s demeanor and stepped back a pace, nearly losing her footing. Fortunately, Sun Changyou stepped forward in time to steady her.

Sun Changyou’s impression of Shi Yutong had been formed from their two previous encounters, when she had struck him as beautiful and vivacious, with a lovely smile. He had never seen Shi Yutong like this before, and he was immediately taken aback. He had not expected her to shout and curse like some common shrew from the streets. She was still beautiful before him, yet the viciousness in her eyes and the overbearing expression on her face made him feel that this was not the girl he remembered.

Madam Sun, leaning on Sun Changyou’s arm, had also been alarmed by Shi Yutong. She had previously known that this daughter of the Shi family was somewhat spoiled, but she had not expected her to be this domineering.

If she behaved so rudely toward an elder now, once she actually married into the Sun family, would she not ride roughshod over her as a mother-in-law?

—